Textured or aerated milk, also sometimes referred to as stretched milk, steamed milk, or milk froth, is a common component of many beverages, particularly professionally prepared coffee beverages, such as lattes and cappuccinos, and milk substitute beverages, such as smoothies. As used herein, milk may refer to any animal milk, such as cow milk, or milk substitutes such as almond milk, soy milk, etc. Milk may also refer to other dairy products such as yogurt. Traditionally, textured milk is produced by inserting a steam wand into a container of milk and then adding steam to warm the milk and introduce air bubbles. Other methods of producing textured milk are known including aerating warm milk with a handheld device such as an immersion blender or even a whisk, though typically with less desirable results.
However, there is currently no suitable method of creating a textured milk beverage that is able to reproduce the effect of properly made textured milk which can be packaged and dispensed from a storage container without requiring the manual or steam aeration described above. Although many products are available purporting to include a canned latte or cappuccino beverage, these products often suffer from any of a number of flaws, including little to no milk texture, or a very short hard and dry foam floating on top. For example, one technique that only produces a dry hard foam is disclosed in International Patent Publication No. WO 1996/33618 and involves supersaturating the milk with a gas, typically a nitrogen oxide (NOx) in a large pressure chamber prior to packaging and then quickly capturing the expanding liquid in a can or bottle. The outcome of this technique is far inferior to the professional-grade aerated texture described above.
Accordingly, it is desirable to provide a new method of packaging a liquid beverage in a storage container which, upon opening, produces a volume of a stable foam without requiring manual aeration or steam.